RGE - American Un-Beauty: The Crisis of the Suburbian (McMansions and Gas-Guzzling SUVs) Way of Life

RGE - American Un-Beauty: The Crisis of the Suburbian (McMansions and Gas-Guzzling SUVs) Way of Life

Calculated Risk: Duelling Discourses of Debt

SEC News Digest (Issue 2008-139; July 18, 2008)

Freddie Mac Now SEC Reporting Company

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced that the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) has voluntarily registered its common stock under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and is now subject to the Act’s periodic and current reporting requirements. By voluntarily becoming a reporting company, Freddie Mac has publicly disclosed, and will continue to disclose, key information about the company’s finances and operations.

The Commission staff provided Freddie Mac the same regulatory relief given in 2004 to the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), which voluntarily registered its common stock in the year before. Under the relief, both companies agree to disclose direct financial obligations and off-balance sheet arrangements on the same basis as if they were public companies conducting registered offerings. (Press Rel. 2008-145)

Jim Hamilton%u2019s World of Securities Regulation

NASAA Requests Comments on IA Model Rules 
The Investment Adviser Regulatory Policy and Review Project Group of the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) is soliciting public comments on two sets of model rules it created for investment advisers and investment adviser representatives. The first set of model rules coordinate generally with the investment adviser and investment adviser representative provisions of the Model Uniform Securities Act of 2002, created to act as a helpful template for those states having adopted or planning to adopt the 2002 Act. The second set are model rules to coordinate specifically with the investment adviser/investment adviser representative exam requirements of both the 2002 Act and the Uniform Securities Act of 1956.

The comment period will be open for 21 days, from Friday, July 18 to Friday, August 8, 2008. Comments should be sent to Kenneth Hojnacki, Wisconsin Dept. of Financial Institutions, Division of Securities, P.O. Box 1768, Madison, Wisconsin 53701-1768; kenneth.hojnacki@dfi.state.wi.us.